Pre-match: International Friendly: USA vs Mexico; September 6th

I hope we get to see Brooks and Long partnering in the middle. That's something I've wanted to see ever since Long emerged. I'll be fairly pissed if we don't see that combo against Mexico considering Brooks is leaving before Uruguay.

 

If we assume that this is indeed the lineup, the biggest question in my mind is how do Pulisic and Boyd play? I would expect them to play what I would consider an attacking midfield/wing role than as pure forwards. Obviously that particular lineup lends itself to being played quite differently based upon a very few instructions from the sideline. Almost all of those midfield players could be deployed in a variety of ways....we have some very versatile players.

 

You let them practice together and then play them together because they are our two best defenders, and hope they do a good job.

 

Hey, man, this is BigSoccer! It's never too early to criticize the manager for sh!t he hasn't done yet.

 

No he hasn't cooled he's just playing more minutes tha he's ever played so FCD was giving him less minutes recently. I personally haven't seen much of Lletget this year so can't say who is more deserving but Pomykal does have the advantage of having played with McKennie a bunch.

I'd offer that he's suffered playing winger because he hasn't recived much service there. I don't think that would be a problem with the lineup shown.

I'd like Morales as the D-mid in the 4-3-3 but when on defense I'd expect the formation to revert to a 4-4-2 or something else with two defensive mids meaning either McKennie or Pomykal would drop and help. on offense I'm a take what they give you guy so outside backs could tuck in from either side or take off on either side to add numbers. I don't like pre-determined stuff where someone has to do a role even if the other teams is prepared for it and taking advantage of the quirk.

 

It was an interesting question, so I looked up the club pedigree of the guys on this Mexico roster. They have 4 guys in La Liga, 1 in the EPL, 1 in Serie A, and 3 at Ajax/PSV/Porto. The rest are from Liga MX and MLS.

So, I'd say they have a slight advantage in terms of guys at good Euro clubs (9 vs. 7), but also their Euro guys are more established and in their prime in general than our guys. Chicharito, Guardado, Herrera, even Tecatito is 26 now (when did that happen?)...they're all well-known quantities in Europe, whereas our guys skew younger and are still proving themselves as useful players at good clubs.

I don't know if we'll doing this friendly again, or if qualifying will be going on during the September window, it would be interesting to revisit the comparison a year from now. It might very well be flipped in our favor at that point.

EDIT: Of course, we're also missing Adams, Yedlin, and Weah. I don't if they anyone at a good Euro club other than Lainez who isn't on their roster? So maybe we already have the pedigree advantage when fully healthy?

 

Dest has plenty of speed to counteract the over-the-top long balls... and I think he held up quite nicely against APOEL. He doesn't have the height to consistently win the ball in the air though... so he needs to rely on his jets. Brooks is the opposite. He has height in spades but can be dribbled past in the box. There are not many van Dijks out there... so I don't think we can blame the players for being a bit more traditional in their roles. They are going to need to rely on each other to do what they do best.

 

Tata throws us a bone, we win 2-1, and folks here will think it means something.

 

C’mon. It’s an if/then statement and quite frankly isn’t an unreasonable assumption given that Coach has relied on either Trapp or Bradley as a regista in every single game. I’ll be very happy if I’m wrong but as you said, we’ll see.

 

Double post. Sorry

 

I doubt Tata is going to throw us any bones, especially after being quoted as saying Mexico is ahead of the U.S. right now. I'm sure their federation and fans expect a win. Plenty of people in this thread understand that the primarily goal of this excercise is player evaluation. Let's hope GGG understands that as well. That said, I don't want the youngsters to get blown out.

 

He's not that kinda man. He'll destroy us.

 

"Christian Pulisic and four of his U.S. teammates will return to their clubs after Friday’s Gold Cup rematch against Mexico [8:30 p.m. ET, FS1] and will miss next Tuesday’s international friendly against Uruguay, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports."

 

Through his first full 11 matches of the season Pomykal averaged an insane 7.6 WS. Through is last 5 full matches, he has averaged 6.4. The drop-off has been immense. I've watched FCD matches during both periods. He hasn't been nearly as directly influential in the latter matches.

 

Has Lletget done anything of note this year? Sounds like he has been hurt quite a bit and is the 6th to 7th best player on a good MLS team. Pomykal seems to have lost momentum a bit, but is clearly the best player on his average MLS team. Pomykal has a much higher ceiling in general and is on track for 2022, not sure Lletget is.

When did Pulisic play LW against Mexico? The three games he has played, he was a ACM. Pulisic has looked out of it against Costa Rica, where he has been deployed as a strict winger or RM.

I wouldn't ever play with a lone DM as the USMNT manager. Maybe if it is Adams. McKennie and Morales and someone should be a midfield 3. We saw in the GC final the age old idea of a midfield 2, and it was outnumbered and overrun like it always has been.

The most interesting question is how do we get to a new, for GB, 4-3-3 defensive shape. They tried it in the GC and it required a lot of sprinting by midfielders. With two months to think about it, have to hope GB comes up with a better plan.

 

One player who is talked about well in the media and around here, but who has been poor to terrible all year, is Long. He is routinely getting beat on the dribble. Such legendary attackers as Mitrita and Tinnerholm went around him at the end line like he was a traffic cone. This has been happening more and more regularly. He has been a different and better player for the US this year; you have to wonder if he is bored in MLS.

 

Lletget is in better form than Pomykal is. I'd take Nagbe over both, but,...., yeah.

Pulisic played a functional left forward against Mexico in the GC final and at Azteca. The match against CR was an all-around nightmare, and Mexico won't lineup that way.

Long has brought it for National Team.

 

Cover.

Would also have to throw in Boyd and Besiktas(25th in the UEFA Club coefficient) to make 9 vs 8

 

Brooks, Morales, Steffen, Johnson, and Pulisic are leaving after tonight.

That leaves my projected XI against Uruguay

————--Sargent—————-
Lletget—————————Boyd
———-Pax——Wes(C)———
—————Yuiell——————
Dest—————————-Cannon
———-Long—-Miles—————
—————Guzan——————

Bench:
Gonzalez (Guzan) 46
Lima (Cannon) 80
Zimmerman (Miles) 65
Roldan (Pax) 65
Trapp
Baird (Lletget) 80
Morris (Boyd) 65

 

Please show me the quote where he said, if I’m called I won’t show... I bet you can’t. It doesn’t exist.

He was asked a question and said something of the ilk that he hasn’t closed the door on anything. He’s at this camp. He’s only ever played for US. If he’s called to league of nation everything he’s done up to this point indicates he shows up. Could he still switch sure. Don’t invent things to fit your view.

 

that's a cute parse/spin of his words that means nothing.

he didn't say he wouldn't show for us. but he also didn't say he would show up. he also didn't deny he might choose the other way. same diff.

if your implication is if we call him, he comes, he literally denied that below. his sole commitment is to this particular opportunity this week. after that, for a binding game, he has to decide.

“(The Dutch Federation) said something to me, it was not the first team yet, it was with the Under-23s. They want to have a meeting with me. I keep the options open.”

“I’m happy for this opportunity, and I’m happy that I’m here right now,” Dest said. “I don’t know for the future yet. You guys will see what happens in that time.”

When asked if he would consider skipping the October Nations League matches in order to avoid being cap-tied to the United States, Dest was non-committal.

“I don’t know yet. I can’t make that decision yet,” Dest said.

“I was a little bit surprised, and I felt like, how you say, valued,” Dest said. “I like to play for the U.S. so I love that opportunity.

“It’s a big opportunity, and I’m also proud to play for them,” Dest said. “For me, they give me a lot of chances when I was younger so I appreciate that.”

[fwiw "when i was younger" was June 2019.]

 

why would you call both steffen and johnson to let them both go after one game? both have recent full game caps for eval purposes and it would be silly to split their time as such. keeper subs to me are for capping young players into the side in the second half.

just odd. pick one and leave the other off. or be a man and tell the clubs we will have both as long as the rules dictate.

the next game is then poised as a matter of logic to be yet another guzan cap when he is a frustrating choice and gonzalez has been in camp like 3 times and never gets a cap and a look-see.

 

Dest?

 

i would expect that but i would also see it as a retrograde choice ie getting worse again.

i would play robinson in the first game to see what we have. dest is far more of a dice roll and he gets to play tonight.

 

Yedlin can't defend, Dest strikes me as a Yedlin clone, and Adams should be playing DM